Adiel is one of West Africa’s internet pioneers having in the early 90’s, set up some of the first private and independent Internet Service Providers in the region, CAFENet. He is the current Chief Executive Officer of Africa’s Internet Numbers’ Resource Registry, AfriNIC Ltd. His over 15 years experience in the internet industry include working as a director in the IT service industry and as an Information System Manager. Within internet governance community, Adiel has served as member of the UN Secretary General Internet Governance Forum Advisors Group , in the African Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (ATAC/UNECA) and in the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie group of expert on Internet Governance.

Alex Comninos is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Geography, Justus Liebig University Giessen. His doctoral research focuses on the use of crisis mapping in the Middle East and North Africa. He has published research on various topics including freedom of association and peaceful assembly online, cybersecurity, intermediary liability, mobile banking and African political economy. I am interested in advocacy around the exercise of human rights online, and I would like in the future to conduct human rights advocacy in internet governance fora. I hope to use this opportunity to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of internet governance. I hope the training will make me better in formulating my research and advocacy as internet governance issues.

Anriette Esterhuysen was the executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) - the largest ICT-focused civil society network in the world - from 2000 to 2017. She continues to work with APC as a consultant and convenes the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG), a joint initiative of APC, the African Union Commission and Research ICT Africa.

Ms. Esterhuysen has served as Chair of the Multistakeholder Advisory Committee of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum. as well as on the African Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's African Information Society Initiative (1996-1999), the United Nations ICT Task Force (2002-2005), the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Working Group on Financing Mechanisms (2003-2005), the Commission on Science and Technology for Development Working Group on Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Improvements (2011-2012) and on Enhanced Cooperation (2017-2018), the Global Commission on Internet Governance and the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the IGF (2012-2014).

She was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame as a Global Connecter in 2013 and received an EFF Pioneer Award in 2015. Ms. Esterhuysen serves as a Commissioner on the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace and as a member of the board of directors of the .ZA (South Africa) domain name authority, ZADNA.

Avri Doria is a research consultant with a number of contracts with both NGOs and the technical community. She served on the UN Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation I (WGEC) and the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). She served as a member the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Secretariat and was a member of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (IGF MAG). As a technologist she has been involved in the development of Internet protocols and architectures for over 30 years; is co-chair of a Research Group on Human Rights Protocol Considerations and a member of the Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG). She has been active in ICANN policy, was chair of the GNSO Council and is currently a member of the ICANN Board. Avri was awarded the ICANN Multistakeholder Ethos award in 2014.

International Fellow and Lecturer in the Media Change & Innovation Division of the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich. His work in Internet Governance as an academic and practitioner includes being advisor to the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on Shaping the Future ofDigital Economy and Society , three terms asChair of the NonCommercial Users Constituency and seven terms on the Board of Directors of the European At Large Organization. He is a core faculty member of the European and South schools on Internet governance.

‘Gbenga Sesan is the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative, a pan-African social enterprise working on digital inclusion and digital rights through its offices in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University. Originally trained as an Electronic & Electrical Engineer at Obafemi Awolowo University, he completed Executive Education programs at Lagos Business School, Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Santa Clara University and University of the Pacific. ‘Gbenga’s consulting experience includes assignments completed for numerous institutions, including Microsoft, Harvard University and United Nations agencies, among others, in over 30 countries. A Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year and former member of the United Nations Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT, he is a CyberStewards Fellow, Crans Montana Forum Fellow, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow, Ashoka Fellow, Our Common Future Fellow and Cordes Fellow.

Co-convener of the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) a multi-stakeholder forum for people and institutions interested in ICT policy and regulation.She is also an advisory board member of the Global Partners Digital cyber capacity building program, which is tasked with helping to guide the development of a training curriculum for civil society.

Association for Progressive Communication (APC) coordinator of the internet rights and human rights. Joy joined APC in April 2011 and was previously a lawyer with her own practice and a Commissioner with the New Zealand Human Rights Commission from 2002 and 2010. Her expertise is in human rights issues in the Asia and Pacific regions, women’s rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, and human rights and the Internet.

Nnenna works to develop cutting-edge collaborations in Africa. Her work has a particular focus on the Alliance for Affordable Internet project and the Web We Want campaign for human rights on and through the Web. She is an experienced development professional who has worked in the ICT field in Africa for over a decade. As well as leading a highly regarded consultancy platform, Nnenna has in recent years co-founded The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa, and served as a board member of the Open Source Initiative. Her career has allowed her to work closely with many civil society organisations, the African Development Bank, the Digital Solidarity Fund and has seen her involved in many phases of the UN’s Africa Information Society Initiative. She has lived and worked in five African countries and is fluent in English, French and a number of African languages.

McGinnis is currently an independent examiner for ICANN’ s name and numbers. In the past, Tim consulted for African ISPs on IP resource issues, gave trainings and lectures on DNSSEC, Internet Governance, and Internet infrastructure development. He was also the .pharmacy Registry Administrator for the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. He was also previously a hostmaster and trainer at RIPE NCC, as well as the PDWG Co-Chiar for AFRINIC and the Training Manager for ISC.

Dr. Towela Nyirenda Jere holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering (Networking and Telecommunications) from the University of Kansas, an ACCA Diploma in Financial Management and is a qualified Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute (USA). She is currently the Programmes Manager with the NEPAD e-Africa Programme at the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA). She currently manages projects in e-skills and Internet Governance and is responsible for identification of new projects and partnerships for the e-Africa Programme. Prior to this appointment she was the Projects Coordinator at the Malawi Polytechnic, University of Malawi.

Wolfgang Kleinwaechter is a Professor Emeritus from the University of Aarhus in Denmark where he was teaching a master course on Internet Policy and Regulation since 1998. He is also a Commissioner in the Global Commission on Stability in Cyberspace (GCSC).

He is involved in Internet Governance issues since the early 1990s. He was member of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (2003-2005), appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Special Adviser to the chair of the Internet Governance Forum (2005-2010), Nitin Desai, and Special Ambassador of the Net Mundial Initiative (NMI).